Chapter 6, day two
It was the middle of the night, and Blaze still wasn't asleep. He lay on his bed on top of the covers staring at the ceiling, his hooves behind his head. He'd been lying like this for hours, and he still hadn't gone to sleep. He rolled onto his side and looked to his alarm clock '3:40' it said in bright green electric letters.
'oh come on!' he thought, getting frustrated 'why the hell can't i get to sleep?' he rolled back onto his back and turned his head to look out the window beside his bed, outside the stars had come out, and a low hanging moon lit up the night. Blaze had pushed his bed all the way up to the wall, so he sat up cross legged and stared out the window.
The night was beautiful, as it always was. Just like everypony, Blaze knew the moon was raised and lowered by princess Luna, a beautiful Alicorn who lived in Canterlot. Blaze had always wanted to meet Luna, for reasons he could never quiet work out. It wasn't for sex, he was sure of that, he was just a normal Pegasus after all...but there was something about her that was so...mysterious, a kind of darkness that seemed to draw him in.
Anypony else always said they'd want to meet Celestia, but Blaze could never understand why. Celestia controlled the day, and it was during the day that ponies lived their lives. But it was in the night time the world truly came alive, when the ponies had gone to bed and the animals reclaimed the world.
Not animals in the sense of the dogs, cat, rabbits and other domesticated creatures that ponies kept as pets, no, real animals. Manticores and chimeras, basilisks cockatrices' and of course...Dragons. Blaze had always wanted to see a dragon, one of the greatest and most deadly creatures in existence.
His father had told him that before he was born, his tutor Twilight sparkle had had a pet dragon. Spike or spark or something like that, he could never remember. He'd had purple scales and bright green eyes and crest. But he'd grown his wings and migrated to one of the volcanoes in the far east a year before Blaze was born, which seemed rather disappointing.
Blaze tried to imagine what Spike would look like now, as a mature adult dragon. Adult dragons could live for over a thousand years, so it was entirely possible Spike was alive right now, somewhere out in the ash fields of the far east. 'one day I'll go find him' Blaze thought, shifting in his bed until the eastern star appeared out in the top corner of the window 'I'll fill my flank pack with supplies, say goodbye to ponyville and go east. I'll see the great desert, where the city of unicorns lies. And i'll go to the oasis of divine light and collect some of its crystal clear waters to bring home. And then...the ash fields' just the thought of the place sent a shiver of fear and exhilaration through Blazes spine.
The ash fields where located in the far east, the far far east. They lay beyond Cathay, that ancient eastern stronghold of pony kind and the edge of pony civilisation. Once you got there you had to go north into the haunted steppes, where barbarous hoards of Mongol ponies led by their vicious khans lay in wait for unsuspecting travellers. But that was not the only danger, no once you got through the hoards you entered the ice peaks.
For every make believe story of ghosts and ghouls that existed in Equestria, there was a real one in the ice peaks. Whenever a pony came out from the peaks they would bring with them tales of creatures that came from the storms themselves, wrapped in ice and their touch freezing a pony solid in one second. There where tales of shadows that glided across the pale white snow at night to descend on sleeping travellers, who where never heard from again. They even talked about the storms themselves being alive, about how the great maelstroms of snow and ice would sweep down the mountains and cover merchants caravans and lone adventurers alike. Swallowing them whole and leaving nothing behind but frozen wagons and abandoned flank packs.
But once you got through the ice peaks the world flattened out into a single unending plain, the end of the world. The ash fields. In the fields a hundred volcanoes spewed ash and volcanic gases into the sky day and night, blocking out the sun and the moon. The world was lit up by the orange glow of lava rivers and the eruptions of magma, and the heat was hellishly oppressive. It was in the fields the dragons lived, and always had done. They flew and battled through the ash clouds and drank from the lava rivers and gorged themselves on the gems that lay in abundance.
At the centre of the fields was a massive peak, punching its way into the sky. It was krenturas, and ponies said that if you climbed to the top and looked down the great hole in its peak you could see into hell and behold the fate of all evil and sinful ponies. But there where rewards for such a suicidal journey, great rewards. In the ash fields where the finest jewels in the whole world, and they weren't hard to find either, the stories said that the gravel of the earth itself was formed from chips of emeralds and rubies and sapphires, all made grey by the ash.
But that wasn't it, not by a long shot. In the fields there lived some of the oldest dragons in the world, ancient beasts from the dawning times who had seen who civilisations grow from nothing and crumble to dust. A single scale of one of those creatures was worth a fortune, and also razor sharp, after all in the old stories the hero always used a dragon scale sword, the finest weapon ever. At the peak of Krenturas, where the lava poured from its gaping wound, there grew great fields of fire rubies; extremely rare and hard to come by, fire rubies where some of the most valuable jewels in the world. They where the colour of blood, and when held up to a fire light it was said they reviled the future within their red depths.
Blaze longed to go there to the ash fields and find one of these rubies and bring it home for the entire world to see, so they would know his achievement. Hundreds of years ago an explorer had brought princess Celestia a fire ruby that he had stolen from a dragons lair, and the princess had elevated him to the rank of a great lord and had the stone set within her crown. It was still there, a tiny and minute thing that was so easy to miss, but it was so beautiful.
He smiled at his idle dream and turned back to watching the stars, mapping out the constellations as his father had taught him to. In the north there was the unicorn, who's horn was peaked with Polaris, the northern star. In the south there was the pegausi, the tips of her wings where lit up by the twin stars of Galania. In the west was the earth pony, who had a single eye lit up by the Andraenic Star. And in the east was the Alicorn, the greatest constellation ever. It was huge, and took up the whole of the eastern sky. His wings spread out across the sky, covering the world below. His horn reach over the world and peaked at the centre, where the Galaxial star burned bright in the sky. And his eyes where lit up by a myriad of stars, shining bright in the night.
As he admired the Alicorn, making mental notes as it moved across the sky, he saw a silhouette blot out one of Alicorns eyes. He could only glimpse it for a second, but as it passed through the light he saw that it was midnight blue, with huge wings...and a horn. 'Luna' he realised, his mouth becoming dry for some reason 'i just saw Princess Luna' he couldn't believe it 'but she never comes out at all, not even at night time. She has to stay in the castle and deal with the administration of the kingdom...so what's she doing flying over ponyville?' it was a question that stayed with him, nagging at the back of his mind.
He watched the sky for a while longer, hoping to find another glimpse of Luna, but it proved to be a fruitless search. He sighed and was about to lie back down and try to get some sleep, but then a shadow caught his eye. He looked out the wind, and in the faint moonlight he saw a silhouette fly straight over his house and make its way to the lake at the edge of the Everfree forest, where it touched down and disappeared. In that one moment his mind was made up, this was something he wasn't going to miss out on. He sat back up, opened his window and stuck his head out, the night was warm and silent with no breeze. He wormed his way onto the window sill, made sure his parents room had the curtains drawn, and took off into the night, following after the shadow.
≤ΘΘΘ≥
Blaze glided silently into landing, angling his approach with the moon in front of him, so he wouldn't cause a shadow to herald his arrival. He alighted behind a thick set of reeds on the far side of the lake and silently tip toed his way through them and looked out on the lake, searching for his quarry. The lake was silent, still and serene, not a single ripple moved along the surface of the lake, and its surface mirrored the sky above it perfectly.
"Are you looking for somepony?" a light voice said behind him, Blaze froze in place, scared to turn around. "don't be afraid now" the voice said, Blaze gulped and slowly turned on the spot, his eyes wide. Before him, silhouetted against the moon, stood Princess Luna in all her dark, radiant glory. Her mane and tail where a Twilight blue, with streaks of black running through it and it was dotted with points of light, like stars. It shifted and billowed in an ethereal wind, spreading out behind her. Her skin was a deep blackish blue and her eyes where an equally deep blue. They twinkled as she saw blood rush to Blazes cheeks and he performed a rushed and clumsy bow.
"Princess Luna, your majesty..." he managed before he succumbed to the urge to stare, which his mother told him was rude.
"hello Blaze"
"you know my name?"
"of course" Luna moved and walked in a circle around him, Blaze stood stock still, unsure what to do "you look just like your father" she gently took hold of his chin and looked into his eyes, peering into their ultramarine depths. "different eyes, but i can see the same fire in them" Luna smiled warmly, her teeth where perfect and flashed white. "it's good to see you again"
Blaze didn't know what to say "we've never met before" he managed
"oh, we've never met, but I've seen you before, your father sends me and Celestia a picture every new hearths eve" she giggled when she saw the confusion in his eyes "don't you know who i am?"
"you're princess Luna"
"that's a title, who am i to you"
"Princess Luna"
Luna sighed and shook her head, the smile still on her lips. "your father never told you, did he?"
"tell me what?" he asked, and then, remembering his courtesies "your highness"
"well, i imagine this may come as a shock, but you had to find out sooner or later. Your father is my brother Blaze, I'm your aunt"
Blaze simply stared, his brain instantly churned out a rejection response "you've got to be shitting me" then he realised what he'd just said and his hooves flew to his mouth.
"no, i'm not shitting you" Luna said smiling.
"i'm pretty certain a princess doesn't swear"
"oh really?"
"yeah, really" Blaze hesitantly walked up to Luna, or more rather the supposed Luna and tentatively reached out and touched her nose. Luna blinked "ok guys, how did you pull this one off, seriously?" Blaze began looking around, expecting weave or somepony to jump up laughing, he was met with silence. "come one Needle, or thread, tell me, seriously" he walked in a circle around Luna, looking her over "an illusionary spell maybe?" he reached out and touched Lunas wings, as he touched them she ruffled her feathers "ok, maybe not" he poked her flank, Luna rolled her eyes.
"are you done yet?"
"a nice trick, really, it's got to be the horn right?" he reached up to it "it's gotta be a fake" he grabbed it, no, that was real enough.
"if i was a trick would i be able to do this?" Luna reared and instantly lighting split the sky, coming from nowhere. Lunas eyes glowed a bright white and Blaze fell back in surprise, landing hard on his rump. Luna came back down and her eyes stopped glowing, a smile was on her face.
Blaze was breathing hard "no, i guess you couldn't" he got back up "so, erm, pardon me for the whole wing horn thing, i was pretty sure this was a prank"
"it seems pretty stupid to me that someone would pull a prank this complex in the middle of the night miles from anypony"
Blaze blushed "yeah, i guess you're right" he remembered what she'd told him "but i can't believe you're my aunt, i mean, come on. You may be the real Luna, but how could you be my aunt? My dad's just a normal stalli-"
"he's an Alicorn is he not?"
"...yeah, but he-"
"and it's only royalty that are Alicorns"
"that's not true, there was an Alicorn born in Trottingham three years ago, she's not royalty"
"her sixteenth great grandfather was...intimate with my sister"
"...ah, that makes sense" 'the princess had a bastard foal? Well that's...unexpected' he played his final card "if my dad is royalty how come he's never gone to one of the big royal feasts before? My dad's never been to the Grand Galloping Gala in his life, he's never been to Canterlot in his life! How can he be royalty? I mean, it's not like a prince would just decide one day 'I'm tired of this' and leave!"
It was Lunas turn to blush "that's...a long story that your father had best tell you" her smile dropped slightly "but that's another matter, i'm here for something else. I need to speak with your father Blaze, about a family issue"
"is this about princess Celestia getting food poisoning from that muffin the mail mare gave her last time she was in town?"
"i did tell her not to leave it in the fridge for so long"
"If I'm your nephew, how come you don't know where i live? How come you've never come to visit before?" once again, Luna blushed.
"your father and i had an...argument a long time ago and we've not really talked since" Luna reached out and touched a lock of Blazes flaming mane "i have wanted to visit for years...but your father wouldn't allow it, so instead he sends us a picture every year" Blaze had no idea what could make his father hate a princess, or why a princess would even listen to him. But if his father had been that mad to stop his own sisters from visiting their nephew, it had to have been serious.
"ok, follow me" and with that he turned around and took off, a million questions circling in his head. Luna, who was following close behind however, was too busy admiring the way her nephews wings beat through the air, seeing the strength in each stroke.
'he's just like his father'